China correspondent for Fairfax Media

Appealing to the Prime Minister: Tommy Du with a photo of his father. Photo: Kate Geraghty

The family of an Australian surgeon jailed in China has urged the federal government to act after disturbing suggestions he has been subjected to death threats while in detention.

Du Zuying alerted Australian consular staff earlier this month that Chinese prosecutors told him a business adversary had hired someone to kill him.

Despite the seriousness of the claims, a consular report seen by Fairfax Media concluded Du ''did not raise any welfare concerns''.

His son Tommy Du, of Sydney, was concerned over the consular's response to the death threats and said he was devastated to learn his father could be in danger. ''My heart sank. I was speechless.''

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Du is appealing against a four-year conviction for misuse of business funds. The result of his appeal should have been handed down more than a year ago.

Tommy Du urged Prime Minister Julia Gillard to raise the case with the highest levels of government in Beijing when she made a high-profile visit next week.

The case continues to be one of the more alarming in a series of murky prosecutions of Chinese Australians since the 2009 arrest of Rio Tinto executive Stern Hu and raises questions about the ability of Australian ministers and consular officials to adequately protect the rights of its citizens in Chinese jails.

The consular report said the director of the Tai'an detention centre in Shandong province, where Du is being held, had not heard anything in relation to hired killers but said it would ensure Du's safety.

The director said Du was ''stressed and depressed'' because of his case and health problems, including high blood pressure and high blood sugar levels.

Despite representations from consular officials, Du has been held in detention for 15 months, a direct contravention of Chinese law.

A letter from Australian ambassador Frances Adamson to the Shandong party secretary, written after Fairfax Media revealed Du's detention last November, has gone unanswered.

Du has maintained he is in jail only because he has been framed by his Chinese business partner who stripped him of the company he founded and listed it on the Nasdaq stock exchange. He says it is the same former business partner who is plotting to murder him.

While the death threats are impossible to immediately verify independently, the financial stakes are high.

The company Du founded, China Biologic Products, which supplies blood plasma products to Chinese hospitals, has more than doubled in value in the past four months to more than $700 million.

A case Du is pursuing through the Chinese court system to wrest back control of the company can't proceed with him in detention.